Celestial Rogues

Those who use celestial or popular magic for criminalized activities.

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Coelventian

Type: Vigilante

Coelventians fly on magical winds in order to protect the weak and degraded. They belong to secret groups that swear a magical oath to uplift, protect, and help others.

Coelventians are fully devoted to the cause of uplifting others and protecting the weak and oppressed. They work to fight for the oppressed as vigilantes. They all swear an oath upon their own souls to serve in this capacity for their entire lives, and any betrayal of, deviation from, or depature from this will result in the loss of their magic - and their souls.

They make this very clear to anyone who wishes to join them in the work, but they also make clear the positive sides of it. Anyone who makes this vow and lives the life is guaranteed "salvation" from the powers of the authorities (and possibly the afterlife). None who do this work may be enslaved or imprisoned, and the winds themselves may obey their will. However, this only works as long as they are engaged in the work of protecting the meek, the poor, the enslaved, the imprisoned, the oppressed, the exploited, or the abused. While they can engage in other, related work, certain abilities are not in place when they are not working as vigilantes. The vow they make is sworn on an angel's feather, and if they knowingly lie, they burn.

Any coelventian who has sworn their vow must still prove themselves worthy by working for at least a year and a day at freeing slaves, fighting oppression, and standing up for the victims of injustice. After this is done, they are sent to a secret location, alone, in a small boat, where they meet a celestial figure who tests them. If they are found truly worthy, they are given a pair of blue wings made of celestial power, giving them certain powers:

• Flight: coelventians can fly on the winds. This spends no feathers.
• Celeste gale: winds tinged with blue light flow from their wings, stunning any agent of oppression struck by them. This spends 4 feathers per use.
• Uplifting breeze: a light breeze tinged with blue light flows from their wings, giving strength to any oppressed grazed by them. This spends 2 feathers per use.
• Swift gust: the coelventian turns into a fast gust of wind for one turn, moving 100' in any straight direction. This spends 3 feathers per use.
• Feather strike: a blue feather darts from their wings, striking any target for 12/18/24 damage, +3 against infernal targets. This spends 1 feather per use.
• Windwall: a blue-tinged wind forms around them, protecting them from missile attacks. This spends 3 feathers per round of use.
• Blue whirlwind: for every turn they spend spinning, a celeste whirlwind forms, drawing in every infernal or oppressor within 50', hurling them about, causing major damage. This spends 5 feathers for every three rounds of use.

Other powers may be possible around the themes of uplift or wind. Their wings have 20 feathers at a time. They get replenished every night, assuming the coelventian has not violated their vow. The number of feathers increases the more they work.

PRO +2 ATH +4 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS / STH +1 ESS +2

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Kazensko

Type: Criminal

A kazensko is a criminal-of-all-trades who uses their magical cunning to trick and con and steal and get one over on the powers-that-be.

To gain magical cunning to begin with, a kazensko must have lived on the fringes of society, outside the law, and been an enemy to imperial powers. They must be devoted to outwitting agents of oppression and to use what they gain to help others - they are Robin Hood-like heroic criminals, true romantic rogues and cunning heroes. They live a life devoted to fighting authority, and they do so with their wits.

If they achieve this, they find that they are visited by celestial spirits of cunning, often a fox, a rabbit, a cat, or a corvid. They learn from this spirit and use the tricks they learn to help others, growing as an outlaw hero, and becoming synonymous in their region with trickery. They gain magicks that help them fool their enemies:

• Foolish demeanor: the kazensko can intentionally act like a fool or buffoon and force their opponents to underestimate them.
• Slippery sleeve: the kazensko can slip out of bonds by making their sleeves fall off, regrowing the sleeves later.
• Confidence of the bold: the kazensko can trick people by acting like they're in charge of a situation, tapping into their magic to make this easier.
• Double locus: the kazensko can be in two places at once a few times per week.
• Weakpoint sight: the kazensko can know the weakpoint of an imperial or infernal being or figure if they study them for one minute.
• Intimidating smile: the kazensko's smile will cause any imperial figure to be intimidated instead of disarmed.
• Improbable disguise: the more unlikely the kazensko's disguise, the more it will work.
• Piercing insistence: the kazensko can gain an insight into the arrogance, hubris, or pride of an imperial and insist to them something that is plainly untrue, but make them believe it - i.e., they can pull an emperor-has-no-clothes kind of con, magically.
• Foxtail: if the kazensko tricks seven imperial people in seven weeks, they will grow a fox's tail that gives them temporary magical bonuses to their next criminal act.
• Rabbit’s foot: the kazensko can run with incredible speed to escape the authorities at the cost of their STR, temporarily.
• Cat’s balance: the kazensko will land on their feet from a high enough fall, nine times.
• Corvid’s caw: the kazensko can honk like a raven or caw like a crow that only their allies will hear.

Kazenskos are heroes and very illegal in imperial lands. They are revered in Vsemy and Jedinstven, but rare in those places due to a lack of need. They are not merely bandits, though they are often strongly associated with them. They are adept at almost any criminal activity. In cities, they tend to be more focused on thievery and burglary. In the countryside, banditry and highway robbery.

Players would have the option of coming up with a team of criminals they work with if they choose this.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL -1 PRS +3 STH +3 ESS +1

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Merciful

Type: Assassin

The merciful are those who bring death as a mercy to the victims of the iniquitous - not killing the victims, but their oppressors, bringing mercy by slaying the iniquitous.

These assassins wield power granted to them by living a lifestyle that embodies mercy - they don't even kill insects if they can help it; they help those in pain and in need; and they do their best to live a life that alleviates suffering. And from this, they gain the power to kill those who cause suffering.

In order to gain the power to kill, they must be exemplary in their merciful ways, and they must make a vow to always live mercifully. They must prove it every day, and their vow must be made upon something sacred to them - and at risk of losing that. (And it may not be the life of another, though it may be their own life.) Their oath must be heard by someone who also lives a life of mercy or by someone of equal power (one who lives by a virtue or one who draws power from one of the celeste waters, flames, stone, metal, beast, wood, or winds). Then, they prove their mercy by being tested with a vision that comes in their sleep. This vision will inevitably require them to choose a merciful action. If they succeed, they awaken with a feeling of compassion and mercy in their hearts.

This feeling can be transferred into any weapon they choose. It is tradition in Ranu to use a bow, sword, or dagger.

If they fail in living a life of mercy at any point, they will weaken. If they make an egregious error or intentional renouncement of a life of mercy, they lose their powers completely.

Because they are filled with the sense of mercy, they tend to have a very calm demeanor that makes people underestimate them as a threat. The power of mercy means that even a normal wound has a chance of killing the iniquitous. And they are protected against infernal powers, and they gain special senses.

• Celeste demeanor: any rolls to detect their intentions or otherwise read them face an extra +3 PRS because they will be seen as harmless and kind.
• Merciful strike: if they choose, they may channel their mercy into an attack, forcing anyone who receives a normal wound or better to roll WIL against the power of mercy or die instantly.
• Hallowed aura: any infernal power directed at them rolls against an extra +3 on either STR or WIL.
• Detect cruelty: they gain a +3 to PRS or AWA to sense if someone is a source of suffering for others.
• Soothing gaze: the merciful may channel their compassion into a gaze that soothes the victims of those they have killed.

The merciful are very rare and extremely forbidden by imperial powers.

PRO +3 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +3 PRS +1 STH +1 ESS +1

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Rescuer

Type: Kidnapper

Rescuers specialize in saving children from harmful environments. They determine this with the children's consent, oftentimes working with a supportive parent to remove the child from an abusive parent or to rescue enslaved children. Rescuers also "kidnap" enslaved adults, adults in bad situations, and prisoners, but they do not gain special powers for doing so.

Anyone who saves a child from terrible circumstances generates magical energies, but only some are able to notice and wield them. In order to do this, rescuers learn from mentors in secret groups who seek children in need. They practice by engaging in rescue missions before they have magic, going on missions with their mentors, and studying the magical arts wielded. Eventually, they are deemed ready and are tested. In order to be able to tap into this magic, they must meet certain criteria.

They must never intentionally harm a child. They must not allow harm to come to a child if they have the means to safely prevent it. And they must be willing to die for the cause.

If they meet these criteria, they are tested three times. Each time, they are forced to decide between their own life and that of a child, and if they hesitate at all, they are not granted powers. If they sacrifice themselves, they are granted a magical power to let them resolve the situation without dying. After these tests, they then gain new powers as they continue to rescue children:

• Guardian presence: if the rescuer is within 10' of a child, they may extend an aura of protection to that child (or children).
• Tourmaline shadow: any child standing in the rescuer's shadow (including their clothing, hence why they wear big cloaks) is invisible to preying eyes.
• Hide and seek: if the rescuer tells the children to "play hide and seek", the children gain +6 to STH from any predator seeking them and the rescuer gains +6 AWA to finding them.
• Bouncing ball: a rescuer can throw an illusory ball that appears to pursuers to be a child fleeing.
• Shield the innocent: the rescuer may give a child a token (usually a toy) that gives the child +6 protection against any kind of infernal attack.
• Baby's breath: the rescuar may give a child a snack that, if eaten, allows the child's cries to be heard by the rescuer from anywhere.
• Parental vengeance: if a child has been harmed by someone other than their parents, the parents may give a rescuer a token of the child that grants the rescuer +6 to killing the person who harmed their child.
• Bloodsevering: if a child's parent is their abuser, the rescuer can kill the parent and sever the blood connection between the parent and child such that the trauma is erased, if the child is under 10 years old.

Rescuers are demonized by imperials and hunted down.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL / PRS +1 STH +1 ESS +1

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Vilva

Type: Traitor

A vilva is a former solomonari, a kind of infernal wizard who is part of a secret order called the Scholomance. A vilva has betrayed the order and turned to the side of the people.

Solomonari are wizards who ride dragons, bring disastrous weather, enslave elementals, and work with powerful undead. Vilva learn these fell arts, but they reject them eventually. Depending on how deep in they were, they may have some heavy curses or other infernal magicks upon them, but they no longer wield it.

Vilva returned to their villages and communities from which they had been recruited and resolve to protect them from the solomonari. They wear rags rather than fine robes, keep books they share with anyone (and help them learn to read), and carry a bag of magical talismans which they use to help others. Their bag includes but is not limited to the following:

• A broken iron axe that repels bad weather
• A tarnished bridle that soothes abused animals
• A book of wisdom that others can read even if they can't read
• A branch with a dead snake's skin on it that repels evil
• The bag, which can hold these no matter what

The magic they have after betraying their previous order are variations on what they once had:

• Ward against bad weather: a special magical symbol placed on an object that keeps a location safe from bad weather.
• Animalspeech: the ability to talk to animals.
• Revive fields: with a touch, they can repair and revive fields of crops that have been harmed by the solomonari.
• Repair spell: they can repair objects or buildings on a farm that has been damaged by a solomonari.
• Ward against dragon magic: a special magical symbol placed on an object that protects the bearer from magic used by a dragon of any alignment.

They are hunted to death by their former order, and thus, they often hide what they are. Like their former order, they often disguise themselves as beggars.

Players would have a group of solomonari hunting them if they choose this. The GM and player would come up with these characters if none are already written.

PRO -1 ATH -1 STR -2 AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS -1 STH -1 ESS +3